MERCER ISLAND, Wash. -- It's been three weeks since a Mercer Island man's boat washed up on the shores of Lake Washington without him on it. Since then, the King County Sheriff’s Dive Team and other agencies spent hours searching the murky and deep water, still they found no signs of Richard Sweezey.
On the morning of July 20, Sweezey left the Queen City Yacht Club in his boat to do some repairs. He hasn't been seen since. Police and his family believe he probably drowned - but nobody knows for sure.
Sweezey had spent decades on the water and both family and friends say the loss doesn’t make sense.
“He's the most capable person I know,” Kinley Clifford said about her father.
Clifford says her dad was the person everyone counted on.
“He was just really in an awesome place in his life and really enjoying life,” she said.
The family says the last few weeks have been excruciating.
“Not knowing has been horrible, you wake up in the middle of the night and your mind goes over every possibility of what happened.”
Sweezey’s family has turned to the group Innerspace Exploration, it's a non-profit organization that plans to use divers and sonar technology to see if they can find Sweezey and finally give his family some answers.
“If you don't know what happened to them it's very hard to know how to feel and to start comprehending it,” Clifford said.
The family hasn’t even been able to think about a funeral. They started a web site to raise money to help with their search and others.
“This has been so horrible and I would never want to think about someone else experiencing it," she said.
If Sweezey is found, the family realizes the news will probably not be good. But they say knowing he is at peace will give them the chance to find some, as well.
For more information on the family’s fundraising efforts:
More information about the non-profit group Innerspace Exploration
